Thankyou so much for the advice with the Powerwall 2. I just had one installed yesterday and am waiting for electrical check and switch on. Can’t wait to see how much it’s going to help with power bills.
I wanted to add PW3s to my existing Enphase PV system with their IQ8A micro inverters and was just informed the PW3 currently doesn't work with my gear (12.5 kWh PV system about 25% more generation than consumption with NEM). So my installer suggested some Enphase 5Ps or the PW2. He did say the PW2 would be much cheaper offer more backup power and take up less wall space in my garage. So he's working up an estimate. In addition to the 30% tax credit I was informed my local utility will give me a $300 per kWh CASH REBATE, so I'd be getting $9100 back as a CASH REBATE. I can get two PWs for a few thousand less than a noise 24kW generator. So while I wanted LFP I can live with the PW2 given it will be installed inside a finished garage. Great video and you answered all my questions, especially the Phone Pairing info.
The Tesla Powerwall has been great. We have had one for 5 years and added a second unit a couple of years ago. Best savings for us on a time of use tariff and a virtual power grid agreement. Battery warranty is 10 years. We had a grid outage for 10 hours during daylight and charged our car, ran the house as normal and kept the batteries full until power returned. The whole system should pay back when including solar plus battery plus electric car.
Sorry, I meant an 8 hour outage. It was a scheduled outage by the network provider for major work. I estimate that the whole system should pay back within the 10 year warranty period.
Lovely video mate, Did I hear right when you said something about Enphase microinverters. Do they work with Tesla powerwall and what are the issues you may have?
We do have the Enphase microinverters, they work perfectly fine with our Powerwall. What they don't work with is the app ChargeHQ. I believe it's because Enphase has not made the API that ChargeHQ need to work with them publicly available.
Great video and very informative, thank you so much for sharing! Can I ask you, what solar system do you have? I have a Fronius inverter (not hybrid) so I am looking for a AC coupled battery solution like PW2. I am asking you the question about your solar system as I am interested in knowing how the Tesla PW knows your solar production and home usage. Is that part of the PW functionality?
We have Enphase microinverters. But I believe how it works, and I am certainly not an expert, is that the Tesla Gateway is the device the communicates between the Powerwall and your solar system.
So glad I found your youtube channel. Loved learning from you. We recently had solar panels and a powerall installed (Mel AUS) but we are really struggling with understanding how to use it effectively. Our power bills are increased significantly and when we struggle to understand how it works. We truly believe something is wrong with how it has been set up and Nectr have not been able to work out what is going on. Tesla support has not been great either. Bottom line is that the house and Tesla are mainly pulling from the grid and not the solar or powerall. I am so confused. Are you able to help us,, or do you know if there is a professional service who can look at our setup and try and help????
Glad my channel could be of help and sorry to hear you're having issues. I think it sounds a bit more technical than what my skills could help with. You could try reach out to the folks that installed our solar panels. They have been really good to deal with - www.essentialsolar.com.au. Let them know I sent you. ☺️
Hi Lee. FYI, I also didn't qualify for a battery rebate, because I already received a (much smaller) rebate on my solar panels (this is in Melb BTW). However, I am a TSLA shareholder, and me being rather brazen, spoke to my Tesla liaison person to see if I could get a shareholder discount - and the answer was YES (after I proved I actually had the shares). I got $1000 off the INSTALL (not the battery itself) which is really pedantic to be honest. I didn't care where it came from, but I paid $1000 less. Happy days! Like they say, if you don't ask, you don't get. Regards, Greg.
Great video i could never find out why i needed to pair my phone for off grid that was very clear , Thanks . The problem i have in the UK is when i try to add my none Tesla car and electric billing it's all for the US its asking for my State and Zip code so i cant get passed that . How did you set it for Australia ?
I don't think I needed to do anything. It was just already set for Australia. Perhaps reach out to your installer and check with them? I may be remembering wrong, it was quite a few months ago.
Grid charging is only about the battery. When turned on it can pull power from the grid to recharge the battery either to replenish your backup percentage or in time based control mode it can use grid power when it's cheap if it doesn't think there'll be enough solar to charge and get through a peak pricing period. With grid charging off, the battery will only charge from solar. Your house can still use grid power when you get to your backup reserve or when time based control thinks the grid is the more advantageous option.
Thanks for the clarification, I guess since I’ve always had it on off grid mode, I never really noticed. Only tried the timed thing for one night when we first got it up and running to see how it worked.
@@ashmodownunder It's a shame it's so expensive cause it's really good. Remember that Tesla isn't the only company out there doing this. There are other options you can look at that may not cost as much or meet you needs better.
We do have the daily charge but luckily we get enough money from our feed in solar that it covers that charge. So for now our account is in credit. Might be a bit touch and go during the winter months. Will see how it goes.
Why get a Powerwall ? Two reasons mainly, firstly, whole home backup if there is power failure (and I have a lot). The second reason is environmental, meaning, when the sun goes down, the powerwall kicks in, it replaces all the peak (read expensive) grid power that used to come in to power the house (all night). No power coming in means no pollution is happening thanks to me / Powerwall. As for finances, I seriously doubt I will ever recoup all of the costs, but that's not why I got it. Hi Lee. With regards to the 2 days of clouds, I monitor the wholesale price, and recharge from the grid at the lowest possible price if necessary. But, even with the clouds, power is still being generated by my solar, further reducing what I may get from the grid. So far this year April 2024, I have used $4.76, but exported way more than that (at super peak rates)...
@@scotty9946 yes, I am hitting it pretty hard with time based control and I'm tracking at about the same usage at you in it's first 90 days. I didn't know this when the bonuses were on offer to join a VPP. It will get worked harder over winter; we use electricity to heat our house and I think it will routinely do more than a full cycle per day.
Thanks for the insight. The Powerwall settings part of the Tesla App is still a little confusing. Not sure how to interpret Virginia Dominion’s power bill for the Tesla App settings.
Interesting 👍. We have had SolarEdge Solar Battery for the past 12 months . No blackouts in our area yet. However no power bills either just $400 credit. We recently switched to Amber Electric (wholesale ⚡️). This seems to work well🔋. Have you considered switching to Amber?
That’s for the info. I hope that there will be more and more options for folks. I have thought about Amber a few times, but from what I’ve seen it seems like you need to pay attention to it as the prices switch from positive to negative. I know some folks have created scripts and all sorts of clever things to automate it, but I am not that clever. ☺️
@@notacarguy_au SolarEdge has automated negative FiT curtailment because SmartShift controls the solar inverter which controls the battery. But Tesla Powerwall doesn’t (separate inverter for battery and solar)- Yes. would need to monitor . This may change when Powerwall 3 arrives later this year.
I have thought about switching to Amber a few times and I know that apparently you can automate how it works, but have just not had the brain space to look into it. We've had the battery for almost a full year now and like you, have not had any blackouts, but also have not paid for electricity since we got it.
Does anyone know if Tesla increased the maximum output power of the Powerwall 2? I had one installed last month, and the electrician thought the output had been increased to 6kW continuously in the latest firmware update. I've seen it suggested on some websites that Tesla did increase it, with Wiki saying "Powerwall 2 shipped after November 2020, had the same capacity, but can deliver 5.8 kW of power continuously and up to 10 kW of peak power." But I can't find this anywhere on Tesla's website, all their documents still say 5kW with 7kW peak.
@@scotty9946 I have only had my Powerwall to 0% once, and that was because my missus plugged in the car, and sucked all the juice out. My bad for leaving my backup at 0%
Yes, it’s a real shame that Tesla’s don’t support V2L, but that would only really work as a temporary solution for power outages. The thing with using V2L at least as it stands right now is that I think the most you can get out of it is about 3.6kW from the KIAs and Hyundais. Most houses will use more than that from time to time. Not often. Most of the time our houses doesn’t use more than 1kW, but I know our oven pulls almost 4.5kw for a short amount of time when it is warming up, so we couldn’t use that with V2L. So I think if you’re looking to use a battery as an everyday solution to not have to use grid power, than a home battery is a better way to go.
